ABSTRACT
This chapter will be about preparing solutions with more than one component, but first, it is necessary to introduce the topic of dilutions. A dilution is when one substance (often but not always water) is added to another to reduce the concentration of the first substance. The original substance being diluted may be called the stock solution. The diluting substance is called the diluent. In a biotechnology setting, the diluent is almost always water or an aqueous solution (e.g., buffer). As a familiar example, to make orange juice from concentrate, you pour the concentrated orange juice into a pitcher and add three cans of cold water to it. The concentrated stock solution is the orange juice concentrate, the diluent is water, and the orange juice is the diluted material.
